I was in DC last week for the Hope for Henry Rocks benefit with Todd Snider. It was bittersweet passing by my old haunt XM Radio at the corner of New York and Florida Avenues. I even saw some of the old workmates at the show; Bob Edwards, Hugh Panero, Gary Hahn. I got to interview Todd on stage for the meet and greet before he started playing, and he brought up visiting XM so early on that hard hats were required in the building, because construction was still taking place. We XM-ers had the opportunity to change the culture, and it was an incredible thing to be part of.
My channel, X Country, was dedicated to Americana. Lot's of folks were represented on the playlist, from non-mainstream Nashville cats like Todd Snider, to lots of artists from the Austin scene like Joe Ely, from whom we presented a Music Fog video several days ago. We played today's song on the radio too. Patricia Vonne is the name of the artist and she is striking, beautiful, compelling. I tell you this because she's not actually seen on today's video, but I imagine you get the idea from the featured picture. But the video is an animation, done by Mike Shapiro and Joe Ely is in it, well his picture is anyway! It's from Patricia's second (of four) albums, Guitars & Castanets. And a footnote, she IS appearing along side Robert De Niro in the film Machete, out now.
- Jessie Scott